President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday focused his re-election bid on Greater Taichung, holding a large-scale rally and a meeting with netizens, as the election campaigns of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) heated up.
Ma and his running mate, Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義), attended the campaign rally organized by sports groups in the morning to consolidate support. Ma later met with his Facebook supporters and discussed national policies before heading to another campaign activity held by the party’s youth group.
Ma’s campaign schedule in Greater Taichung coincided with the campaign activities of his DPP counterpart, DPP Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), who also visited the municipality yesterday for the DPP’s congress and large-scale rally to build up momentum for the combined legislative and presidential elections on Jan. 14.
The overlapping campaign schedule of the two candidates sparked concerns from Tsai’s camp, especially after Tsai’s trip to the US earlier this month was mirrored by Ma’s top aide, his campaign executive director King Pu-tsung (金溥聰), who continuously criticized Tsai’s campaign platform and policies during his US trip.
Ma’s campaign yesterday dismissed concerns from Tsai and the DPP about Ma campaigning in the same location as Tsai, and urged the DPP presidential nominee to focus her attention on presenting a platform.
“President Ma’s meeting with Facebook fans in Taichung was arranged a month ago and we have never accused Tsai and the DPP of following our campaign schedule. Rather than questioning us, Chairperson Tsai should focus her efforts on offering solid policies,” said Lo Chih-chiang (羅智強), vice executive director of Ma’s campaign team.
At the campaign rallies, Ma promoted the government’s cross-strait policies and promised to lead the nation to a more prosperous future if re-elected.
“The majority of Taiwanese wish to maintain the ‘status quo’ across the Taiwan Strait and this represents the consensus in Taiwan. The government has been promoting peaceful cross-strait relations under such a consensus and we will continue to do so for the next four years,” Ma said at a meeting with the KMT’s youth members.
He also promised to further improve the lives of the people by addressing everyday issues from the price of cooking wine to fraud cases.
“The government should understand the pain of the people and work hard to solve problems ... Please give us four more years and let us continue with the reforms that will make Taiwan better,” he said.
The CIA has a message for Chinese government officials worried about their place in Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) government: Come work with us. The agency released two Mandarin-language videos on social media on Thursday inviting disgruntled officials to contact the CIA. The recruitment videos posted on YouTube and X racked up more than 5 million views combined in their first day. The outreach comes as CIA Director John Ratcliffe has vowed to boost the agency’s use of intelligence from human sources and its focus on China, which has recently targeted US officials with its own espionage operations. The videos are “aimed at
STEADFAST FRIEND: The bills encourage increased Taiwan-US engagement and address China’s distortion of UN Resolution 2758 to isolate Taiwan internationally The Presidential Office yesterday thanked the US House of Representatives for unanimously passing two Taiwan-related bills highlighting its solid support for Taiwan’s democracy and global participation, and for deepening bilateral relations. One of the bills, the Taiwan Assurance Implementation Act, requires the US Department of State to periodically review its guidelines for engagement with Taiwan, and report to the US Congress on the guidelines and plans to lift self-imposed limitations on US-Taiwan engagement. The other bill is the Taiwan International Solidarity Act, which clarifies that UN Resolution 2758 does not address the issue of the representation of Taiwan or its people in
US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo on Friday expressed concern over the rate at which China is diversifying its military exercises, the Financial Times (FT) reported on Saturday. “The rates of change on the depth and breadth of their exercises is the one non-linear effect that I’ve seen in the last year that wakes me up at night or keeps me up at night,” Paparo was quoted by FT as saying while attending the annual Sedona Forum at the McCain Institute in Arizona. Paparo also expressed concern over the speed with which China was expanding its military. While the US
SHIFT: Taiwan’s better-than-expected first-quarter GDP and signs of weakness in the US have driven global capital back to emerging markets, the central bank head said The central bank yesterday blamed market speculation for the steep rise in the local currency, and urged exporters and financial institutions to stay calm and stop panic sell-offs to avoid hurting their own profitability. The nation’s top monetary policymaker said that it would step in, if necessary, to maintain order and stability in the foreign exchange market. The remarks came as the NT dollar yesterday closed up NT$0.919 to NT$30.145 against the US dollar in Taipei trading, after rising as high as NT$29.59 in intraday trading. The local currency has surged 5.85 percent against the greenback over the past two sessions, central
RSS